I imagine he is focused on beating everyone, but I can understand why he has been a bit more worried about the Ferrari's. As well as Bottas has started the season he hasn't been close to Hamilton over the course of a season so I imagine it might be a case of biding his time. If he isn't taking Bottas seriously, then he is going to have to start taking Bottas a bit more serious though, especially if Merc's form stays as it is.

And there is the fact that Hamilton generally starts the season a bit slowly.

Hamilton takes 5-7 races to warm to the car, in both 2017 and 2018 Bottas was his equal or better in 3 of the first 7 races. It seems the same again. Then Hamilton clicked with the car and was only out performed 1 or 2 more times for the ramining 2/3’s of the season.

Hamilton will always have the same car as Bottas so he knows he can beat him. The same can not be said of Ferrari, if they make a big step and start pulling 1-2’s themselves then there will be little Hamilton can do about that.

I think only unreliability would see him lose to Bottas, a 2016 repeat. Although Bottas is currently stronger than Nico was that season.

Hamilton takes 5-7 races to warm to the car, in both 2017 and 2018 Bottas was his equal or better in 3 of the first 7 races. It seems the same again. Then Hamilton clicked with the car and was only out performed 1 or 2 more times for the ramining 2/3’s of the season.

Hamilton will always have the same car as Bottas so he knows he can beat him. The same can not be said of Ferrari, if they make a big step and start pulling 1-2’s themselves then there will be little Hamilton can do about that.

I think only unreliability would see him lose to Bottas, a 2016 repeat. Although Bottas is currently stronger than Nico was that season.

I agree that Hamilton's main concern in respect to Bottas would be reliability, however the too nice comment comes I think after the realisation of how strong Bottas was in the race and he might have to treat him more seriously in future?

Hamilton takes 5-7 races to warm to the car, in both 2017 and 2018 Bottas was his equal or better in 3 of the first 7 races. It seems the same again. Then Hamilton clicked with the car and was only out performed 1 or 2 more times for the ramining 2/3’s of the season.

Hamilton will always have the same car as Bottas so he knows he can beat him. The same can not be said of Ferrari, if they make a big step and start pulling 1-2’s themselves then there will be little Hamilton can do about that.

I think only unreliability would see him lose to Bottas, a 2016 repeat. Although Bottas is currently stronger than Nico was that season.

I agree that Hamilton's main concern in respect to Bottas would be reliability, however the too nice comment comes I think after the realisation of how strong Bottas was in the race and he might have to treat him more seriously in future?

Definitely. That was a huge compliment to Bottas regarding his performance so far this season. Hamilton has not previously been irked that Bottas has won a race and this time he was, whilst still congratulating him ofcourse, you could see and tell from his language he was annoyed at himself for not being as aggressive as he usually is in overtaking and that means he now considers valterri a threat whereas he probably didn't before

Hamilton takes 5-7 races to warm to the car, in both 2017 and 2018 Bottas was his equal or better in 3 of the first 7 races. It seems the same again. Then Hamilton clicked with the car and was only out performed 1 or 2 more times for the ramining 2/3’s of the season.

Hamilton will always have the same car as Bottas so he knows he can beat him. The same can not be said of Ferrari, if they make a big step and start pulling 1-2’s themselves then there will be little Hamilton can do about that.

I think only unreliability would see him lose to Bottas, a 2016 repeat. Although Bottas is currently stronger than Nico was that season.

I agree that Hamilton's main concern in respect to Bottas would be reliability, however the too nice comment comes I think after the realisation of how strong Bottas was in the race and he might have to treat him more seriously in future?

Definitely. That was a huge compliment to Bottas regarding his performance so far this season. Hamilton has not previously been irked that Bottas has won a race and this time he was, whilst still congratulating him ofcourse, you could see and tell from his language he was annoyed at himself for not being as aggressive as he usually is in overtaking and that means he now considers valterri a threat whereas he probably didn't before

Hamilton doesn't see Bottas as a threat over a whole season, if that was Vettel then Hamilton would have been more aggressive. If Hamilton was more aggressive at turn 1 then Bottas most likely loses a place and that would have caused friction in the team and between teammates early on in the season which is not needed. If that was 4 races to go and both fighting for the championship then Hamilton would have been totally different.

Hamilton takes 5-7 races to warm to the car, in both 2017 and 2018 Bottas was his equal or better in 3 of the first 7 races. It seems the same again. Then Hamilton clicked with the car and was only out performed 1 or 2 more times for the ramining 2/3’s of the season.

Hamilton will always have the same car as Bottas so he knows he can beat him. The same can not be said of Ferrari, if they make a big step and start pulling 1-2’s themselves then there will be little Hamilton can do about that.

I think only unreliability would see him lose to Bottas, a 2016 repeat. Although Bottas is currently stronger than Nico was that season.

I agree that Hamilton's main concern in respect to Bottas would be reliability, however the too nice comment comes I think after the realisation of how strong Bottas was in the race and he might have to treat him more seriously in future?

Definitely. That was a huge compliment to Bottas regarding his performance so far this season. Hamilton has not previously been irked that Bottas has won a race and this time he was, whilst still congratulating him ofcourse, you could see and tell from his language he was annoyed at himself for not being as aggressive as he usually is in overtaking and that means he now considers valterri a threat whereas he probably didn't before

Hamilton doesn't see Bottas as a threat over a whole season, if that was Vettel then Hamilton would have been more aggressive. If Hamilton was more aggressive at turn 1 then Bottas most likely loses a place and that would have caused friction in the team and between teammates early on in the season which is not needed. If that was 4 races to go and both fighting for the championship then Hamilton would have been totally different.

That's what I'm saying, he didn't see him as a competitor, but judging by his post race comments, maybe now he does

Win 76 for Hamilton, 37 races under these regulations to get 16 races win to beat Schumacher. 16 races left this year and a very good opportunity to win 8-11 more races this season.

If things carry on as they are, you'd be surprised if he didn't win at least eight more this season. And you'd expect eight next season to be doable.

This is the type of season where he can make a run at the record for wins in a single year. Merc seem to be clear of their rivals and if he can re-establish dominance over Valteri, he should be able to win 2/3 of the races (which, in a 21 race season, would mean 14 wins).

So a little breathing room in the championship now for Lewis and you get the sense that he's going to start to pull away from Valteri now. It's interesting to note that this is win number 77 for Lewis. He's getting up there now and I do think that he will have a very high total this year in the win column. We've just about transitioned from "if" to "when" when it comes to the question of topping Schumacher's record win total. It's looking 85-90% certain that Hamilton will get to 92 wins now. It will almost certainly happen next season.

The championships are a different story. You never know what will happen year on year with regards to that and any title shot could be your last. I think he's in good shape this year though. Bottas has been very strong so far this season but I'll need to see him challenge Lewis for a full season before a believe it. Mercedes have regained their position as outright best car in the field and their operations staff have been very solid for the most part. Okay they got it wrong today but they haven't made a meal of things the way Ferrari have this season. Only Red Bull are stronger operationally during the races and they don't have the car to match Mercedes most of the time. I expect that to change as the season presses on and I expect Red Bull to surpass Ferrari this year and be a very serious threat in 2020. They are in the ascendancy IMO and Hamilton will have to watch over his shoulder for Max more frequently moving forward.

So a little breathing room in the championship now for Lewis and you get the sense that he's going to start to pull away from Valteri now. It's interesting to note that this is win number 77 for Lewis. He's getting up there now and I do think that he will have a very high total this year in the win column. We've just about transitioned from "if" to "when" when it comes to the question of topping Schumacher's record win total. It's looking 85-90% certain that Hamilton will get to 92 wins now. It will almost certainly happen next season.

The championships are a different story. You never know what will happen year on year with regards to that and any title shot could be your last. I think he's in good shape this year though. Bottas has been very strong so far this season but I'll need to see him challenge Lewis for a full season before a believe it. Mercedes have regained their position as outright best car in the field and their operations staff have been very solid for the most part. Okay they got it wrong today but they haven't made a meal of things the way Ferrari have this season. Only Red Bull are stronger operationally during the races and they don't have the car to match Mercedes most of the time. I expect that to change as the season presses on and I expect Red Bull to surpass Ferrari this year and be a very serious threat in 2020. They are in the ascendancy IMO and Hamilton will have to watch over his shoulder for Max more frequently moving forward.

I'm not sure I agree it's that certain. His win rate in the hybrid era is 51.9% - that means he should win 8 more races this season (the second highest ever in a season) - that puts him on 85 wins. He would then need to win at least 7 next season - and that will only happen if Mercedes produce the best car again. Yes, they are most likely to, but it's far from a certainty, especially as Red Bull will be in the second year with Honda, and the Honda engine will be closer in performance to the Merc. While it's highly unlikely he won't win races in 2020, if it does turn out Mercedes are no longer the dominant team, I can see him walking at the end of 2020, whether or not he wins the championship. At the end of this season he'll be the same age Schumacher was after winning his 7th WDC. If he was a record chaser, then I could see him staying just to get his name listed above Schumacher, but he's always said he doesn't care about that, and I do think he's keen to have a post F1 career doing other things and once he's just making up the number in F1, there will be no reason for him to stay.

It’s probably been mentioned in this thread, but does anyone else get fed up with Hamilton’s constant whining on the radio? I got to the point where I muted the tv every time I saw his radio comms were about to come up.

I’m convinced by the amount of times he bangs on, that he does it as a ploy to try and bluff other drivers. It’s not just Monaco, it seems like it’s every race I’m watching, he’s banging on about the tires going.

So a little breathing room in the championship now for Lewis and you get the sense that he's going to start to pull away from Valteri now. It's interesting to note that this is win number 77 for Lewis. He's getting up there now and I do think that he will have a very high total this year in the win column. We've just about transitioned from "if" to "when" when it comes to the question of topping Schumacher's record win total. It's looking 85-90% certain that Hamilton will get to 92 wins now. It will almost certainly happen next season.

The championships are a different story. You never know what will happen year on year with regards to that and any title shot could be your last. I think he's in good shape this year though. Bottas has been very strong so far this season but I'll need to see him challenge Lewis for a full season before a believe it. Mercedes have regained their position as outright best car in the field and their operations staff have been very solid for the most part. Okay they got it wrong today but they haven't made a meal of things the way Ferrari have this season. Only Red Bull are stronger operationally during the races and they don't have the car to match Mercedes most of the time. I expect that to change as the season presses on and I expect Red Bull to surpass Ferrari this year and be a very serious threat in 2020. They are in the ascendancy IMO and Hamilton will have to watch over his shoulder for Max more frequently moving forward.

I'm not sure I agree it's that certain. His win rate in the hybrid era is 51.9% - that means he should win 8 more races this season (the second highest ever in a season) - that puts him on 85 wins. He would then need to win at least 7 next season - and that will only happen if Mercedes produce the best car again. Yes, they are most likely to, but it's far from a certainty, especially as Red Bull will be in the second year with Honda, and the Honda engine will be closer in performance to the Merc. While it's highly unlikely he won't win races in 2020, if it does turn out Mercedes are no longer the dominant team, I can see him walking at the end of 2020, whether or not he wins the championship. At the end of this season he'll be the same age Schumacher was after winning his 7th WDC. If he was a record chaser, then I could see him staying just to get his name listed above Schumacher, but he's always said he doesn't care about that, and I do think he's keen to have a post F1 career doing other things and once he's just making up the number in F1, there will be no reason for him to stay.

I don't think he'll retire after next season. I don't get the sense that he wants to stop at all. It's just other people who suggest he'll retire early (mostly I think they just hope that he will). I think he's got at least one more contract in him after this current one.

I'd also say that 8 wins for the rest of the season might be a conservative estimate. Mercedes are out in front of Ferrari now and Red Bull are not quite there to challenge either. Really it's mostly a battle between teammates now and Bottas is no Rosberg. Of the 15 remaining races; I'd expect Hamilton to probably win about 10 with the other 5 split between Valteri, Max, Seb and Charles. Things might not play out that way. Certainly Ferrari or Red Bull could close the gap and things could become more wide open moving forward but if Mercedes maintain their edge; I don't see Bottas winning enough races to keep Hamilton from breaking the single season record.

It’s probably been mentioned in this thread, but does anyone else get fed up with Hamilton’s constant whining on the radio? I got to the point where I muted the tv every time I saw his radio comms were about to come up.

I’m convinced by the amount of times he bangs on, that he does it as a ploy to try and bluff other drivers. It’s not just Monaco, it seems like it’s every race I’m watching, he’s banging on about the tires going.

Today’s efforts reminded me of this sketch

I’ll bite.I think the whining on the radio is a combination of things. One - FOM driving a storyline and constantly airing those radio calls, and two - hamilton playing expectations management with the public at large and himself. He’s basically saying “look World - my team messed up and I might not win this race as a result.” He’s also creating a positive feedback loop with the team that forces them to make better calls so in a sense - his whinging on the radio is him trying to get the team to step their game up. If you don’t want me whinging stop making dumb calls. So far it has seemed to work. It is annoying to listen to but I think all drivers do it. Today it was amplified by the commentary team and the race director.

It’s probably been mentioned in this thread, but does anyone else get fed up with Hamilton’s constant whining on the radio? I got to the point where I muted the tv every time I saw his radio comms were about to come up.

I’m convinced by the amount of times he bangs on, that he does it as a ploy to try and bluff other drivers. It’s not just Monaco, it seems like it’s every race I’m watching, he’s banging on about the tires going.

Today’s efforts reminded me of this sketch

I’ll bite.I think the whining on the radio is a combination of things. One - FOM driving a storyline and constantly airing those radio calls, and two - hamilton playing expectations management with the public at large and himself. He’s basically saying “look World - my team messed up and I might not win this race as a result.” He’s also creating a positive feedback loop with the team that forces them to make better calls so in a sense - his whinging on the radio is him trying to get the team to step their game up. If you don’t want me whinging stop making dumb calls. So far it has seemed to work. It is annoying to listen to but I think all drivers do it. Today it was amplified by the commentary team and the race director.

I agree the complaining is annoying but to suggest he is thinking about publicity is unrealistic, its his only link with the team in the middle of a grand prix. Of course the content is aired but that is where he gets his info about tyres, damage, other drivers, weather, other race times and of course support. A vast majority is just raw info and emotion which we get at source.

So a little breathing room in the championship now for Lewis and you get the sense that he's going to start to pull away from Valteri now. It's interesting to note that this is win number 77 for Lewis. He's getting up there now and I do think that he will have a very high total this year in the win column. We've just about transitioned from "if" to "when" when it comes to the question of topping Schumacher's record win total. It's looking 85-90% certain that Hamilton will get to 92 wins now. It will almost certainly happen next season.

The championships are a different story. You never know what will happen year on year with regards to that and any title shot could be your last. I think he's in good shape this year though. Bottas has been very strong so far this season but I'll need to see him challenge Lewis for a full season before a believe it. Mercedes have regained their position as outright best car in the field and their operations staff have been very solid for the most part. Okay they got it wrong today but they haven't made a meal of things the way Ferrari have this season. Only Red Bull are stronger operationally during the races and they don't have the car to match Mercedes most of the time. I expect that to change as the season presses on and I expect Red Bull to surpass Ferrari this year and be a very serious threat in 2020. They are in the ascendancy IMO and Hamilton will have to watch over his shoulder for Max more frequently moving forward.

I'm not sure I agree it's that certain. His win rate in the hybrid era is 51.9% - that means he should win 8 more races this season (the second highest ever in a season) - that puts him on 85 wins. He would then need to win at least 7 next season - and that will only happen if Mercedes produce the best car again. Yes, they are most likely to, but it's far from a certainty, especially as Red Bull will be in the second year with Honda, and the Honda engine will be closer in performance to the Merc. While it's highly unlikely he won't win races in 2020, if it does turn out Mercedes are no longer the dominant team, I can see him walking at the end of 2020, whether or not he wins the championship. At the end of this season he'll be the same age Schumacher was after winning his 7th WDC. If he was a record chaser, then I could see him staying just to get his name listed above Schumacher, but he's always said he doesn't care about that, and I do think he's keen to have a post F1 career doing other things and once he's just making up the number in F1, there will be no reason for him to stay.

He needs to dominate Bottas like the last 2 years, although his win ratio is 52% in the hybrid era, he went 31-20 with wins with Rosberg.

Since Bottas joined he has gone 24-4 in wins.

If Mercedes is dominant at the front, Bottas will take a lot more wins just by leading at turn 1 - but can he get as high as Nico's numbers? Maybe not.

If Hamilton can take 75% of the Mercedes wins and they continue to dominate, then he should end the year on around 86-87 wins. If he can crush Bottas he could get high 88-89.

It's more breathing space in the WDC but he clearly hasn't broken Bottas yet, pole could have gone either way then things would be so much different, qualifying is still not great.

It's breathing space indeed and a nice buffer against what happened in 2014 and 2016. DNFs are so important, that if Lewis has one, its title race back on and Bottas has a narrow lead. If Bottas has one, its his title effectively over with Hamilton likely going 42 points ahead assuming he wins that race, then win the next race and its suddenly 2 race wins clear territory and game over.

The margins are so tight, if Verstappen had punctured Lewis tyre yesterday, Bottas would have a nice WDC lead. Then say Hamilton blows up in Canada, we start to get another 2016...

A long way to go either way

Last edited by Johnson on Mon May 27, 2019 11:59 am, edited 1 time in total.

I’ve never understood why any driver gets heat for complaining on the radio. They’re talking to their team, not us the viewers. We just eavesdrop onto whatever FOM allows us to hear

Agreed. There's some guy on youtube who puts up the full radio transcripts of certain drivers; and when you hear the full exchange you realise the majority of what you hear during the race is heavily edited and quite often out of context. For example a regular moan about tyres becomes an intricate dance by both team and driver throughout the race to keep the tyres alive by various means. Also you read a thread on here moaning about driver A on the radio all the time, only to quite often discover on youtube that driver B C and D spent at least twice as long on the radio for that particular race. I seem to recall a year or two ago that they singled out Grosjean for this treatment; even though he was far from the worst.

But I suppose these broadcasts must be important to some; even though they are heavily edited and out of context, as some use it as a reason not to vote for the individual as DoTD.

Personally I'd like to see a lot more broadcast. Not that I'm that interested in what they have to say, but anything that shuts Croft up a bonus.

To be fair to the race director, if they didn't edit Lewis' comments into this race then from the outside it would have been boring as hell as we all would have assumed Hamilton had the race completely in the bag and Mercedes knew what they were doing.

So a little breathing room in the championship now for Lewis and you get the sense that he's going to start to pull away from Valteri now. It's interesting to note that this is win number 77 for Lewis. He's getting up there now and I do think that he will have a very high total this year in the win column. We've just about transitioned from "if" to "when" when it comes to the question of topping Schumacher's record win total. It's looking 85-90% certain that Hamilton will get to 92 wins now. It will almost certainly happen next season.

The championships are a different story. You never know what will happen year on year with regards to that and any title shot could be your last. I think he's in good shape this year though. Bottas has been very strong so far this season but I'll need to see him challenge Lewis for a full season before a believe it. Mercedes have regained their position as outright best car in the field and their operations staff have been very solid for the most part. Okay they got it wrong today but they haven't made a meal of things the way Ferrari have this season. Only Red Bull are stronger operationally during the races and they don't have the car to match Mercedes most of the time. I expect that to change as the season presses on and I expect Red Bull to surpass Ferrari this year and be a very serious threat in 2020. They are in the ascendancy IMO and Hamilton will have to watch over his shoulder for Max more frequently moving forward.

I'm not sure I agree it's that certain. His win rate in the hybrid era is 51.9% - that means he should win 8 more races this season (the second highest ever in a season) - that puts him on 85 wins. He would then need to win at least 7 next season - and that will only happen if Mercedes produce the best car again. Yes, they are most likely to, but it's far from a certainty, especially as Red Bull will be in the second year with Honda, and the Honda engine will be closer in performance to the Merc. While it's highly unlikely he won't win races in 2020, if it does turn out Mercedes are no longer the dominant team, I can see him walking at the end of 2020, whether or not he wins the championship. At the end of this season he'll be the same age Schumacher was after winning his 7th WDC. If he was a record chaser, then I could see him staying just to get his name listed above Schumacher, but he's always said he doesn't care about that, and I do think he's keen to have a post F1 career doing other things and once he's just making up the number in F1, there will be no reason for him to stay.

I'm not sure why you believe that Mercedes need a dominant car for Hamilton to continue in the sport I'm sure he's happy so long as the car is competitive, given that the rules are the same for next year then at least the Mercedes should be competitive given that it presently is clearly the best car.

It’s probably been mentioned in this thread, but does anyone else get fed up with Hamilton’s constant whining on the radio? I got to the point where I muted the tv every time I saw his radio comms were about to come up.

I’m convinced by the amount of times he bangs on, that he does it as a ploy to try and bluff other drivers. It’s not just Monaco, it seems like it’s every race I’m watching, he’s banging on about the tires going.

It’s probably been mentioned in this thread, but does anyone else get fed up with Hamilton’s constant whining on the radio? I got to the point where I muted the tv every time I saw his radio comms were about to come up.

I’m convinced by the amount of times he bangs on, that he does it as a ploy to try and bluff other drivers. It’s not just Monaco, it seems like it’s every race I’m watching, he’s banging on about the tires going.

To be fair to the race director, if they didn't edit Lewis' comments into this race then from the outside it would have been boring as hell as we all would have assumed Hamilton had the race completely in the bag and Mercedes knew what they were doing.

It added to the show, even if somewhat gave the false impression.

The uncensored version now up on the official F1 Youtube channel makes the race even better.

No actually it's the race director and fans like yourself that are being drama queens. Lewis doesn't dictate which radio messages are broadcast. It never ceases to amaze me how many fans get taken in by "the show".

No actually it's the race director and fans like yourself that are being drama queens. Lewis doesn't dictate which radio messages are broadcast. It never ceases to amaze me how many fans get taken in by "the show".

Lewis admitted later that pitting was never the option, he would never go for it, so what was all this ranting about?

No actually it's the race director and fans like yourself that are being drama queens. Lewis doesn't dictate which radio messages are broadcast. It never ceases to amaze me how many fans get taken in by "the show".

Lewis admitted later that pitting was never the option, he would never go for it, so what was all this ranting about?

He wasn't ranting. Listen to the radio transcript of the race and you'll see how sensationalized the editing was.

No actually it's the race director and fans like yourself that are being drama queens. Lewis doesn't dictate which radio messages are broadcast. It never ceases to amaze me how many fans get taken in by "the show".

No actually it's the race director and fans like yourself that are being drama queens. Lewis doesn't dictate which radio messages are broadcast. It never ceases to amaze me how many fans get taken in by "the show".

Lewis admitted later that pitting was never the option, he would never go for it, so what was all this ranting about?

He wasn't ranting. Listen to the radio transcript of the race and you'll see how sensationalized the editing was.

Maybe we disagree on this then, call it ranting, moaning, whatever you want. He was on the radio talking (I'm not going to use moaning/ranting) about having a long way to go on the tyres before even the SC went in!! Maybe you can forgive someone for thinking that Lewis was a tiny tad of a drama queen with comments like "let's hope for a miracle" amongst other things.

Lewis admitted later that pitting was never the option, he would never go for it, so what was all this ranting about?

He wasn't ranting. Listen to the radio transcript of the race and you'll see how sensationalized the editing was.

Maybe we disagree on this then, call it ranting, moaning, whatever you want. He was on the radio talking (I'm not going to use moaning/ranting) about having a long way to go on the tyres before even the SC went in!! Maybe you can forgive someone for thinking that Lewis was a tiny tad of a drama queen with comments like "let's hope for a miracle" amongst other things.

I simply notice that the ones who seem to have a problem with this are the same ones who always have a problem with Hamilton for one reason or another. The fact that he said something from before the safety car went in shows that he knew even from then that the tires would probably not last (which they didn't). Regardless of the show the broadcasters chose to run with, he won the race. That's really the only thing that matters.